Track the Hours of Sunlight

Tracking the hours of sunlight: 

since starting my early morning walks several months ago I've been tracking the hours of sunlight, noting how the day had lengthened by degrees, barely perceived at first, just a moment of light extended towards both dawn and dusk. Now approaching mid July and I see just a bit of those sunlit hours diminished, barely noticeable through the joy of summer, days still so long and active, heat intense, and it seems like the perfect length of sunlight for this beautiful time of year. 

and it is...

even as the days grow shorter in the light they offer. 

most of us sleep past sunrise, or up soon after and we miss those hours right before dawn. This is where a more rapid change of sunlight happens, noticeable in the days in the immediate following solstice, subtle, and yet there's already a feel of changing seasons. Tracking the hours of sunlight and I'm out the door for my walk just a moment later than the day before, no more than a pause, but each day now that pause grows a little longer, enough to be measured, minutes of light diminished in the season. 

my research tells me that between the solstice and end of June we'll lose approximately 3 minutes and 27 seconds of sunlight. And of course more so daily, mid July and its noticeable even slightly in the evening, no longer just by my own tracking of the morning lights. Oddly, experiencing the seasons change through sunlight, and I'm less concerned by the approach of winter, still not my favored time, yet I find myself cherishing light in a way that feels sacred, attuned to its attributes, sensing its retreat but not feeling it as a loss. I am part of this changing season, intimately so, a creature made of light, and any shadow cast is not my ultimate reality, but simply a wave of particles showing in a play of form, forever shifting in appearance. 

so most truly, I'm tracking my own existence, only briefly measured as a sunlit moment, with my reality more deeply shown as the capacity for both sun and the furthest reach of its light. Particles and wave, a sutra of sunlight and my own revelation. 

as seen through changing seasons. 

~

Peace, Eric